Different-sized black garbage carts could be coming to Calgary

It could be more than a year away, but Calgarians could eventually have a choice between small, medium or large when it comes to the size of their black garbage cart.

Members at the city’s Utility and Corporate Services committee meeting were told Wednesday that administration is looking at creating a black cart variable pricing option.

Currently, all single-family homes receive the same level of service but they aren’t producing the same amount of waste.

READ MORE: How are the City of Calgary’s fees and fares changing in 2018?

Waste and Recycling director, Rick Valdarchi, said a smaller cart would result in a smaller fee paid by households.

“We’re going to give you, if you desire, based on what you’re doing, a different size cart.

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“There will be a financial benefit or if they’re generating enough material, they have an opportunity to choose the cart based on what their generation rates are like,” Valdarchi said.

READ MORE: Weekly green cart collection questioned by Calgary councillor

Collection of the black carts would still be done every other week.

Other cities in North America have implemented similar plans but Valdarchi said the City of Calgary wanted to wait until the blue and green carts were operational.

READ MORE: Committee recommends Calgary scale back its winter green cart collection 

A proposal is going to the June meeting of the Utilities and Corporate Services committee.

Valdarchi says after a variable black cart size option is in place, the city could look at a similar plan for blue and green carts.

READ MORE: City of Calgary looks to be more transparent about waste and recycling fees 

Also at the committee Wednesday, Councillor Druh Farrell stopped short of pushing for a ban on plastic shopping bags. Instead she’s asking for options to significantly reduce avoidable plastic waste and single-use items like plastic utensils or Styrofoam containers.

“Education, options, making it easier to do the right thing, I prefer starting in that way,” she said.

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“A ban if there are no viable options often doesn’t work and that’s what we’re hearing about plastic bag bans.”

A scoping report investigating the options on how to significantly reduce single-use plastics will come back to a city hall committee in the second quarter of 2019.